[kscherer]

I would say that Intel's roadmap played very little role in Apple's plans. I suspect that Apple simply wanted to control the whole pie, but knew they had to do so in a way that made their products faster than Intel's, just so people couldn't constantly play the "Intel is better" card. Apple created their own processor for the iPad at a time when there were alternatives. They used those chips in the iPhone when there were clear alternatives. And they switched the Mac to AS even though AMD and Intel (and Qualcomm, for that matter) offered alternatives.

Silicon on the level of M1 Ultra takes many years to design; it takes many more to develop manufacturing processes; and still more to test and write software for. If I had to bet my nickels, I'd bet that the foundation for M1 Ultra was laid no less than five years ago, which is three years prior to Apple's announcement (Ultra was the goal, but they had to get there in steps). And I wouldn't be surprised at all if the long-term roadmap was drawn up right alongside the A4.

Someone sat down with a napkin (Steve Jobs?) and wrote something like this:

We have chips for our phones, but they aren't as good as we want
We want chips good enough for the upcoming iPad
We also want chips that can best Intel so we can use them in our Macs
We want all the chips
Hire people and get started

The more I watch this thing unfold, the more I realize that AS is all about Apple controlling their own future rather than worrying over whatever Intel is doing. They make engineering decisions so they can make the best products, not so they can "get away from Intel".